My thoughts on hiding preps in plain sight per the 3/4/15 NNPG Amateur Radio net meeting
Some of the things I do and would do, given the opportunity:
A well-stocked kitchen pantry, with foods ‘ordinary’ people eat on a regular basis can provide a two-week or so supply of foods. Though not as common as it used to be, in is not uncommon enough to raise too many eyebrows. And you keep the bulk of the food, including LTS foods somewhere out of sight. This has a couple of advantages. One, you have food handy when you need it. Two, if the unthinkable happens, and you wind up in a situation where some of your food is being confiscated, with this visible supply, those doing the confiscation might just be satisfied with what they see and not search further.
My bed platform is a set of totes on which the mattress rests. Though I do not have them draped, they could easily be. I know someone that does the same thing with 6-gallon pails and a piece of plywood.
Same thing with a couple of living room tables, which are totes, with a piece of plywood over them, covered with a floor length table cloth.
A lot of hidden in plain sight can be in the packaging. Everyone (everyone I know, anyway) has boxes in their closet. Often banker boxes. Sometimes even shoe boxes. Any of these can have some preps in them and there be no indication of anything other than the storage that everyone has
Some of the boxes can even have preps in them, with non-prep items on top. (Also something I do for more clandestine type items.)
There are many preps that do not need to be hidden at all, plain sight or not. Things like the candles and herbs/spices you mentioned. But some other common living items that are prep related as needed are a good idea. A good semi-pro weather station display. Home automation can include not only entertainment audio/video, but security/fire system components, house environmental control, and even active defensive systems such as high output sound system and high output strobe systems.
Extra deep bookcases can have a row of the top best sellers and coffee table books, with a row of prep manuals behind them.
Certain decorative items can be useful, too. Shadow boxes can be filled with actual useful seeds. Small, heavy vases, lamps, or statuary can be used as expedient throwing weapons in home invasions until a weapon can be accessed. Properly modified wall hangings or paintings can be defensive shields.
Well-built furniture (at least one piece in each room) can be a life saver in earthquakes by providing a crouch down spot that will support collapsed ceilings.
A properly installed fireplace (set up with both heating and cooking in mind) can provide not only back up heat, but cooking, as well, in addition to being a social center in the home.
If wanting a lower profile alternative to an inside fireplace and solar water heating panels on the roof, an outside multi-fuel furnace with PV solar panel powered control, pump, and fan systems can provide clean heat and an abundance of hot water, without anything being inside the house to give it away. With the furnace looking like a small yard shed, and wood and coal bins looking like just a couple more, a person can have a primary or backup system that would make any prepper proud.
A swimming pool is also a prep-hide-in-plain-sight items. Great for swimming, of course, but also a supply of water usable for sanitation (not so great for drinking without some major re-treatment) and for fire fighting.
A large, and I mean really large, sandbox, preferably one with a roof over it for sun protection, can be constructed to hold a great deal of good clean mortar sand. Especially if you dig down a foot or three to make more space. This provides a good storage area for one of the most versatile items a prepper can have. Sand can be used for sandbags, of course; for fire fighting, and for filling buckets, tubs, boxes, drawers, and any other container you can find to stack around for fallout protection.
You can also store this important material in larger than necessary flower pots, with soil on top of it for growing food plants; in really deep planter boxes that can act as access control barriers around the property and house; and simply in commercial bags from the Home Builder Supply stores stored in the garden shed ‘for improving the garden soil’.
Your EDC can often be ‘in plain sight’ in being in your pockets or purse. But you can go this one step further by carrying some preps using a common field vest when in the field, such as a photographer’s or fisherperson’s vest. This is as opposed to military style LBE.
And even in more citified situations, a Scottevest vest, jacket, coat, shirt, or pants will allow you to have some preps on you without them being obvious and out in plain sight. This can even apply to cargo pants, or even designer cargo pants. Who is going to consider someone wearing $300 designer cargo shorts might have prep gear stashed in them?
In a like manner, a good quality leather or nylon money belt for your pants or skirts with belt loops can hold rather more than just some cash, though that is certainly a good idea. Handcuff key, gold and silver coins, and some compact blades can be carried.
There are items such as a Fresnel lens, special wallet knife, or wallet utility tool or card that can be kept in your wallet and even in a pocket notebook in a shirt pocket if you are so inclined and given to carry such a thing.
A 550 cord bracelet can provide some cordage, and with the right buckle a whistle, handcuff key, or ferrocerrum rod and striker.
Concerning the EDC items: Do remember that there are places where some of the items will get you detained and hassled, such as government buildings; airports, train stations, possibly bus stops in some cities; many State tourist attractions and almost all Federal tourist attractions.
Just my opinion.
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